A handful of free useful tools for streaming on Twitch

Follow my stream at Twitch.tv/DaveVoyles

In the last few months I decided to start streaming the games I’m playing, podcasts I record, and programming tutorials that I create. I use OBS (Open Broadcast Software) for all of this, which is a free tool for recording and streaming audio and video from your computer. I created a video tutorial around this as well.

Now that I have more experience with it, I wanted to share some other tools that I’m using in tandem with OBS to give my stream a more professional look and feel. If you think I’m missing out on any, let me know.

Discord Chat Overlay

Discord Overlay Host application so that I could capture my voice chat to OBS while I stream to Twitch, and still be able to use the desktop application for responding to text chat. This application allows you to create an OpenGL or DirectX “game” window and then add it to Discord to put their overlay on it. You can then use OBS game capture to display the portions you want on stream.

I use this when I want viewers to see the 5 or so people who I am chatting with via microphone.

Free Twitch Themes

I use one of these sets for my own page. Easy way to make your page look a bit more professional.

Twitch Alerts

I use popup alerts so that the room is notified when I have a new follower or someone makes a donation. Even better, I can tie into their API and have the latest follower have their name remain on screen. Here are some of the features available (and all free):

  • Popup Alerts
  • Stream Labels
  • Donation Goals

You’ll also need this Chrome extension, which creates a .txt file for you, so that you can display some of the information about stream labels on your screen.

Kap Chat

Overlay chat from your Twitch room into your actual video feed with this. You can style it with an CSS, and create transparent backgrounds, as well as fade, so it’s never intrusive to people watching your feed.

Stream Tip

This is a simple way to setup payments for your stream. I believe you need a PayPal account for this to work, but it only took me a couple of minutes total. From here, I added a PayPal button to my Twitch page, so when people click on it, they are brought to my tips page.

Better TTV

This make Twitch far easier to view. Dark themes, anon chat, recent chat history, and custom emotes are just a handful of the things you can quickly add with this.

 

Discord

While not directly related to Twitch, I use this chat program for finding other people to play with. Whether it is Overwatch, Heroes of the Storm, or Paragon, I can find a full group any time of day, and we all have microphones. Needless to say, this makes your stream more engaging, too.

 

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